What If: The New Zealand Prison Catastrophe

Posted on Fri Apr 7th, 2023 @ 6:17am by Kyle Cragen [Reece] & Commander Arrianna Salannis an Vantar & Quinn [ADMIN NPC]

Mission: WHAT IF?
Location: Earth Above New Zealand
Timeline: Five years after the rescue.
1087 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

A small freighter emerged from warp near the New Zealand prison complex and began to enter the Earth's atmosphere. Seemingly, the ship had lost control. Only that a woman in a Starfleet Medical Uniform nearby was controlling the Freighter's plunge towards the prison. The ship was moving too fast for anyone to be warned.

As the doomed freighter approached, alarms began sounding from the prison. Almost instantly, the installation's shields were activated. Unfortunately, the defenses were designed to stop weapons and illegal transports. No one had considered someone would use a freighter, weighing several hundred metric tons, as a ballistic weapon. At best, the shields could only soften the impact some.

Suddenly the freighter slammed into the ground in front of the prison and began to plow through the walls smashing through many of the outlying facilities. Chaos erupted as the ship came to a stop.

The Prison was being evacuated. During the chaos, Veronica fell in with the medical teams that were being dispatched to remove the prisoners and wounded from the prison. She had one destination. The Supermax Wing that was about to be evacuated.

Through the chaos, no one stopped the medical officer from moving through the shattered prison. For the most part, the various prisoners were following the orders given by the security guards. Some did try to use the disaster to their advantage, however those individuals were all stopped quickly.

As Veronica reached the Supermax Wing, all power finally failed throughout the entire facility, plunging her in darkness.

To say that chaos surrounded her, was putting it mildly. Guards were rushing about, some with struggling convicts, some with cooperative ones, even others carrying dead prisoners and fellow guards.

To understand Veronica's subtleties, is to understand Arrianna's genius. A normal hologram was restrained by ethical subroutines. She opened a panel while the chaos was happening and covertly and elegantly slid in a isoliniar chip that would self-destruct once its purpose was achieved. A backdoor so to speak in the complex's extensive network of holoprojectors. These prisons used holoprojectors for the supermax wing, they could be trusted with the most high-profile criminals in the Federation. Veronica then walked out, pushing a hover-stretcher with a wounded prisoner.


--Two Weeks Later--

A holographic prison worker walked through the supermax wind, delivering breakfast. It was Veronica delivering the food, but she had disguised herself, controlling the holoprogram from another location, the backdoor she had installed during the chaos of the accident two weeks prior. It was written off as a navigational error, but it was enough for two purposes; First it was a distraction for Starfleet Security and the media. Second, it allowed Veronica to lay some ground work. Veronica stopped before Kyle Cragen's cell and opened it.

The man was sitting on his cot, looking at a holographic image of a young woman that looked as if she could be related to hom. He didn't pay any attention to the hologram that entered the cell.

The hologram entered the cell to remove the breakfast from earlier in the day, that was when the back door into the prison's system caused the security cameras to malfunction. The door shut behind the hologram, and the hologram suddenly morphed into a very familiar red haired, gorgeous woman. In her eyes was an all consuming darkness beyond anything in this world. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Veronica stated in what could only be a dark tone. Arrianna was gone forever.

Still the man didn't look up. It was as if he didn't hear her. Suddenly, he seemed to shimmer slightly, then resolidified. A few seconds later, it occured again. There was a rhythm to the cycles, as if he was a recording on a loop.

"So you have eluded me again.. This is unacceptable." Veronica noted. "No matter. I will not be denied." Veronica stared at the hologram. "I will find you if I have destroy every El-Aurian that breaths, I will"

"Oh so now you will slaughter the innocent? Does that make sense to you?" A soft female voice said from behind her.

"The El-Aurians are not innocents." Veronica noted. "Maybe if they had taken care of their mess, I wouldn't have to deal Kyle Cragen personally. Maybe if he didn't destroy Arrianna then there might have been a hint of compassion left in me. I am not the weak and idealistic Starfleet Officer you think I am. Yes... Arrianna was weak... Cragen killed her, and I buried what was left."

"So I see." The female was slender with long red hair. "And while you rage and kill Arrianna, you leave another innocent to suffer."

"Phoenix Lalor took too long." Arrianna noted. "There would be nothing of her left, at the mercies of Bishop for nine months but Sephine Cragen." She noted. "I will avenge her if I have to search time and space for him."

"And you allowed yourself to be brainwashed and transformed into a whore" The reply now was hard. "You blame others. You blame Josie?"

"How could I allow myself to do that!!!" Arrianna shouted. "His pain was endless. Excruciating beyond belief. And it happened for days. I would have done anything for it to stop. And then she used what she knew about me to destroy me further when she married him. Phoenix chose her mission. Nine months. There's not a shred of Josephine Carlyle left in her. I will find Kyle Cragen, It does not matter if he's gone to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. He will pay." She began to manipulate the wristpad on her arm.

"That woman is not Josephine Carlyle... She is gone... All I have left... Is retribution against the meddlers that destroyed everything I once was. And when I am done.. They will wish they stayed on their homeworld to be assimilated." Arrianna began to disable the holoprogram.

The redhaired woman sighed and snapped her fingers and the holoprogram vanished. "I won't allow you to commit genocide!"

Arri vanished from the cell and emerged in London England. "I will prove to you, that even a Q... can be tricked." She noted.

Quinn watched and considered her options. She was so tempted to put Arri jn the continuim until she grew a brain but she would leave that in reserve. She headed to warn people about the crazy woman.

~OFF~